Economic and Financial Situation in Russian Forestry at the Transition Period

Economic and political reforms in Russia caused deep economic crisis in the forest sector. As a result Russian forestry suffers from shortage of financial resources to manage forests on the sustainable basis. Many silvicultural and ecological rules are not followed.The acting financial system in forestry is based on the budget money distribution and does not stimulate effective forest management. In order to increase the role of Russian forests in the world environment protection, a new financial system must be implemented. This system must combine the principles of market pricing and state regulation. It must be used as an economical base of the ecological certification in forestry following the criteria and the indicators of the sustainable forest management.